Chapter 33: Faith, Trust, and a Wand

The fifth time Poppy was asked whether or not she thought she would be going to Hogwarts, she decided that being around the magical side of her family wasn't so great after all. This question was like the wizard version of "what you you want to be when you grow up?" It was a question that Poppy didn't know the answer to, made her uncomfortable when she was asked it, and was subject to change.

"Don't let it bother you," Albus had told her. "They're probably just eager to start making guesses on what House you'll be in."

This hadn't made Poppy feel any better.

"Hufflepuff," she pouted, kicking a stone across the ground. "Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenpuff - no that's not right. It's claw." The House Daisy had teased she would never get into.

Poppy looked up. She was out of earshot of the house now. A couple of people sat around a picnic table behind the Potter's mansion, but many people had gone back inside. Ginny waved at her from her seat, and Poppy waved back before she kept walking into the patch of trees. She wasn't entirely sure that this part of the land belonged to Harry and Ginny or not, nor did she care much at the moment. She wasn't so far away that no one would be able to see her if they looked.

After passing a couple of trees, Poppy got the odd feeling that she should be quiet. Dead leaves from seasons past crunched loudly under her boots, and she stopped. Looking up, all of the leaves above were green. She wondered if anything lived in these trees besides the normal muggle things.

She sat down under one of the trees, and pulled out Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from her bag. She had taken to carrying it around with her alongside her sketchbook. When her mom had found out, Poppy had been warned against taking it to her muggle school, but the book followed her there anyway.

None of the other kids at her school ever looked in her bag, and none of them had seen her personal art. They admired her skill in creative school projects, but Poppy had never shown them that she could do any more than that.

During her free time, she had finished drawing the bowtruckle, the hippogriff, and an occamy, the creatures that most seemed to fascinate her. She guessed that the hippogriff and occamy couldn't be found by just walking into a patch of trees, but maybe the bowtruckle could.

The book had said that they were found in wand trees, but how could a wand tree be identified? She scooped up a stick from the ground, and tapped it against each tree trunk as she went in circles around it, looking up at the branches. She didn't see anything except a couple of of ants and woodlice. She scooped up one of the woodlice and waited for it to uncurl itself. It crawled across the stick she had picked up, and she slowly turned the stick in her hand to keep the bug from falling off.

She'd returned back to her original tree by this point, and bent over to pick up the bag she had left behind. When she stood, Poppy caught a glimpse of a creature watching her. Or, she realized, it was watching the woodlouse.

"Do you want it?" Poppy held out the twig and watched as the bowtruckle revealed itself. The small animal climbed out onto the twig, snatched the woodlouse, and returned to its tree, its eyes never leaving her.

Poppy didn't leave her spot under the tree for what felt like a long time. She had hoped that the bowtruckle would pop back out again, but all she had been able to see was the tip of what she thought might perhaps be one of its limbs.

After a while though, she heard someone calling her name. She went back to collect her bag, and ran back towards the Potter's house.

"There you are," Ginny smiled at her when Poppy reached the table. "The last people just now showed up, so we thought we could bring out the food.

Ginny waved in the direction of Rose and Albus who were both carrying dishes out to a picnic table, followed by a boy Poppy couldn't remember seeing before.

"If you'd help carry something out, it would be appreciated."

Poppy nodded and towards the door, bag still slung over her shoulder, and stick still clenched in her hand. Earlier, she had seen Harry levitating a bowl of food across the Potter's kitchen, but when she had asked Lily about it, Lily had told her that their parents didn't let them skip out on ordinary tasks just because they had magic. This must have been one of those tasks, as Poppy was fairly certain that the adults could magic all the food out here quicker than the kids could carry it.

Poppy found that a line of people coming out of the house blocked her from going in, so she ended up just holding the door open as everyone walked out.

"There you are," her sister said as she came out. "I was wondering where you'd gone. We'll talk later." Daisy went out the back door, following another person Poppy didn't recognized. The woman had long blonde hair, and was wearing a dress dotted in vibrant colours. Poppy wondered if she had missed introductions while she was out looking in the trees, or if she had just met so many people at the Weasley gathering the previous year that she had forgotten them.

Poppy let the door swing shut once everyone was through. A quick peek into the house showed her that there was nothing else to collect, so she turned to find a seat somewhere.

Most people had already taken seats. It wasn't nearly as big of a gathering as the one before that year of school, nor was it only family, but there were still quite a few people. Poppy spotted her parents seated next to Rose and Hugo's mother, who was chatting animatedly with Anna. Daisy was still helping to organize food with Lily, who carried a jug of some unknown wizard drink, searching for somewhere to put it down.

Poppy saw the stone sticking out from the ground only seconds before Lily reached it.

"Watch out!" Poppy called to her, reaching forwards with her arms as if she could somehow catch her from this distance.

Lily tripped anyway, and Poppy saw, as if in slow motion, the jug begin to tip forwards, and spill across the table. Her arm reached out reflexively, even though, realistically, she wouldn't be able to catch it from this distance.

But that was without accounting for the wand-quality twig still held in her hand.

The pitcher hung in mid air, not having tipped far enough to spill.

"Thanks -" Lily plucked it back out of the air and turned to look at whomever had helped her. "Poppy?"

Not everyone had seen what had happened, but enough people had. James whooped. Daisy smiled. Someone started clapping, and a few others joined in.

"Congratulations!" Albus laughed.

"Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant," someone said from amidst the cheers.

"Er, what exactly happened?" Dudley and Harry poked their heads out from inside. Apparently, they had still been finishing up and only knew something was happening from the cheers.

Poppy looked at Lily. Her cousin tipped her head, indicating that Poppy should share. Poppy wasn't exactly sure she wanted to share what had just happened in front of everyone. Yes, she was happy that she might be able to go to Hogwarts, but all the same, she wished that it would have been a given thing, and not something to be made such a big deal out of.

"Lily tripped," she said. "I caught the pitcher with magic. With this." Poppy held out the twig she she had kept from her journey out into the trees.

"I'm happy for you," Dudley smiled. It seemed genuine to Poppy, which was somewhat of a relief after the whole argument with her grandad.

"As am I."

Poppy startled as her mother wrapped her in a hug from behind, Anna's light hair tickling her face as they looked at each other. Anna was smiling too, but eyes looked conflicted.

"Are you really?" Poppy asked.

"Yes. Yes I am," Anna confirmed. "I just wish - well, it doesn't matter now. You've still got another year home with us."

After a few minutes, everyone found a seat and ate while they chatted with the people around them. It really wasn't too many people. The Potters, the Granger-Weasleys, the Lovegoods (who Poppy had, in fact, not met before), and of course, the Dursleys, sat around for hours.

"Do you think we could see that 'wand' of yours, Poppy," Harry asked at one point during the meal.

Poppy felt more than a little reluctant to let it out of her possession, as if it were what made her worthy of going to Hogwarts, but she let it go.

Harry turned it over in his hand. It was sturdy, but rather bendy, and had a few small pieces starting to grow out of it. It was also longer than the wands Poppy had seen before.

"Can I use it as my wand?" she asked.

Harry shrugged, uncertain. "It isn't a wand in that sense. You'd need to have it shaped, and have core added for it to function properly. I'm not really sure how it works. I assume it must be wand quality since you were able to get something out of it, but I don't really know enough to tell."

"May I?" Luna Lovegood reached out a hand to take a look.

Harry looked at Poppy first before handing the twig over to Luna, and dismissing himself to go inside.

"It's very pretty, isn't it?" was her first comment.

Poppy wanted to roll her eyes and snatch the wand back. If that's the only insight that could be offered, it might as well be in Poppy's hands.

"I'd guess it's from a cherry tree. Where did you find it?"

Poppy blinked. Maybe there was something more to know. "I found it in the trees over there." She pointed. "I'm not sure which tree it came from, it was on the ground. I - I also saw a bowtruckle. It ate a bug off of the stick."

Luna's eyes brightened. "Really! That's very lucky." She handed the cherry twig back over to Poppy. "I think that will be a beautiful wand."

"Let's have a toast," James proposed from the head of one of the tables.

Luna and Poppy turned to face him as they held their glasses.

"To magical discoveries!" he announced, waving at Poppy.

Several of the kids echoed the chant and drank juice or butterbeer, laughing as they did so.

Luna turned to Poppy specifically. "To what will soon be known."

"Well now that Poppy's gotten the spotlight for a while, let's give a turn to some others," Harry said. He had returned from the kitchen with six letters sealed with the Hogwarts crest.

James, Albus, Rose, Lily, Hugo, and Daisy walked forwards and each took one. Daisy returned to Poppy's side, and their parents eagerly appeared in front of them.

"Go on," Anna urged. "Let's see what it says then."

Poppy watched Daisy's face as she opened the envelope and read its contents. Her whole posture seemed to relax.

"I did okay," she said. "I did pretty good." She read the letter aloud.

Dear student,

The following are the results of your first year exams. Your ability in each of these classes will determine what classes you are able to take in your second year. Our grading scale is as follows:

Daisy read out the grades, starting with O for Outstanding and ending with T for Troll. Poppy had giggled at that one, causing a contagious bubble of laughter to come out from Anna.

The letter continued. Daisy Dursley has received:

Beginning Astronomy - E

Charms - O

Defense Against the Dark Arts - A

English - E

Flying - O

Herbology - O

Math - A

Potions - O

Transfiguration - O

Wizarding Culture and History - E*

"See, I passed everything," Daisy beamed.

"Great job," Dudley said, giving Daisy a one armed hug. "I knew you'd do great."

Poppy smiled, but internally, she thought that she could have done better. She had never bragged about it - she liked being friends with her sister, not in constant argument like some of her friends were with their siblings - but Poppy had always gotten better marks in school than Daisy had at the same level. It was something Poppy was proud of, something that Poppy aimed to do well in. Somehow, being the best in school was incredibly important to her, even if it wasn't the most important thing to her family.

When Poppy got to Hogwarts she knew she would be better. She'd bring home a list of all O's.

"And," Dudley added when he noticed Daisy looking at the two acceptables with a little disappointment, "Don't forget that you have a terrific new skill to add to your accomplishments."

"Professor Flitwick was quite impressed with you, Daisy, and you still passed everything. It's okay to have your strengths, and you'll get better at the rest."

That's right. Wandless magic. Daisy's special skill. A teacher from Hogwarts had stopped by the previous week to talk to her parents about it, and how rare and amazing it was that Daisy was able to use it.

Seeing as Poppy hadn't had accidental magic until she had a wand substitute, she doubted that he talent was one she shared. But if Daisy had unexpected gifts, why couldn't Poppy. What surprises was she in for?

*Somehow I didn't realize that I had Daisy taking 10 classes, but I suppose that's what happens when you add muggle subjects to the curriculum :)

I'm sure the teachers figured out a reasonable amount of work anyhow, so as not to overload students. I also just realized that if I keep my current schedule I'll be taking 9 classes next semester (I had 8 this semester), and I'm a little nervous, but I suppose if it comes down to the worst, I can just drop a class since two are optional.

Aaaand that's it! I can officially mark this story off as completed. Thank you everyone who stuck with me this whole entire journey! I'm really glad that people out there enjoyed this. Thanks for, at the moment, 99 reviews, 103 followers, 45 favorites, being added to 3 communities, and 37794 views!

I might go back and edit some of my earlier chapters if I'm bored or something, but I'm not going to make any plot changes.

In the mean time, happy, Christmas, Hanukah, or whatever you celebrate :)

I almost forgot, this fic will also have it's title changed. I'll leave it Daisy Dursley: Flower Sparks, for now so that I don't confuse anyone, but once I get the next story up, it will become just 'Daisies' as the sequel will also be named for a flower.